Dream trip, that almost did not happen! completed...full of pics

[marconat]

Day 6 - Jan 6th

What we planned for today was for my daughter's birthday. Family members gave her money for Xmas to go swim with a dolphin. She started liking dolphins and killer whales on our trip to California in 2005, where she fed dolphins and had diner with Shamu at Sea World... So we decided to give her a dolphin experience for her birthday... we could not have picked a better date, the weather was hot, in the high 80s, perfect for a day in paradise.

We arrived early, for 8am. We were greeted at the door and registered and off we went. Outside they took a group photo to be picked up at the end of the day. Next we were told that we could go for breakfast until 10 am and then lunch would be serve from 11 am until 3 pm, all complementary of course. breakfast consisted of pastries, fruits, coffe and juices. It was yummy.

Our dolphin experience was at 10 am, so after breakfast we went for our vest or wetsuits and watched a small film on dolphins. The experiences were in groups of 8, so there was 2 lovely ladies from England with us. We got the dolphin to do some tricks, then we went one by one for a photo op with the dolphin, a kiss and petting it. Our dolphin's name was Scarlet, a 27 year old.

Next we went one by one and got the dolphin to pull us for a short distance. We took some more group pictures. Then it was time for Scarlet to bring my daughter's birthday gift, a bouey. It was so cute. And again some more group pictures and a final wave goodbye. My daughter also received, an underwater camera, a t-shirt, the video of the experience, a free picture, and a birthday cake, that we were going to have around 2 pm.
After the dolphins, we went to Ray lagoon, where we could walk around the rays and pet them... My sister was not too crazy about them, but she did go in and faced her fears.
By then we were getting hungry and went for lunch... you had choice of plates... I had the grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and salad, so did my hubby, my sis and B.i.l. The kids had hot dogs with fries. But they had great burgers, Tuna sub, cajun chicken stir fry.. and some more great plates. For desert there was double chocolate cake, carrot cake, cheese cake, assorted fruits. It was so delicious.

Also throughout the park, there was little snack stands with chips, cookies, peanut, bottled water, and beer... all for free (well, let's just say, included with price admission, also included with price admission was 7 days at Sea World or Bush garden)

After lunch, we went on the tropical river, a warm river that brings you around the park, it was breath taking. So beautiful. We went in and came out at the bird santuary, where you can feed them, pet them or just enjoy their beauty. We spend a good hour or two only in there... swimming and snorkling. We had our birthday cake and went back in the pool... My hubby, the kids and B.I.L went snorkling with the tropical fishes.

Our day passed way to fast, it was time to change, get our photo of the day, shop for souvenirs and go back home... We came back to OKW and had pizza in the room.

 

[Sinderelli]

WOW! Love your trip report so far!

Thanks for posting pics for 'Ohana breakfast. I was considering cancelling that one but I think I'll keep it. How did your son enjoy it? My son is 7 and he loves Stitch.

 

[krismom]

Wow! you really experienced everything Orlando has to offer! the kids are beautiful-

 

[Magic2000]

Great trip report! Loved the pictures from Dolphin Experience!

 

[donaldduck1967]

Enjoying the trip report so far. Quick question, what was the NASA astronaut for a day like?
Thanks

 

[ptjohns]

Nathalie,
Your trip report is wonderful, so is the photography! Thanks so much for sharing. What a lovely birthday for your daughter.

 

[marconat]

Sinderelli, my son loved the breakfast, they had a ball... the food was good, my son is a picky eater and he could not have enough of the saussages ha! and the bread was really good. I liked it because they bring you the food at the table, so you are not afraid to miss any characters.

donaldduck1967, the men really enjoyed themselves at Nasa... I'll post some pics. They visited everything and did some landing similations and turned in some machine... sorry, not really into that... but maybe the pics will help.

 

[KimAshton]

I am so jealous of your dolphin experience. I don't have time this trip coming up in March to go cause it is not enough time.

 

[Our2Girls&Disney]

I am really enjoying your trip report. I wrote one last year and I discovered that it is a lot of work. I love the discovery cove pictures. I can't wait until my girls are old enough to experience that! I also enjoyed Universal pics, we are planning one day there. Keep up the good work!

 

[donaldduck1967]

donaldduck1967, the men really enjoyed themselves at Nasa... I'll post some pics. They visited everything and did some landing similations and turned in some machine... sorry, not really into that... but maybe the pics will help.

Thank you.

 

[marconat]

Nasa pictures!!!

I know the men had a great time, they had a wonderful lunch with an astronaut (they were in a group, 24, for the tour, but they were sometimes split up in 2 groups, for different experience)
They visited the grounds, had a similation of landing the shuttle, sat in the turning machine (don't know what it's called ha!) and went for a spin.. had lunch, did some more touring! In all it was all day!

 

[marconat]

Day 7 - Jan 7th

We are half way through our vacation, and what a week it was!!!
Today we took advantage of the free pass given to us at Discovery Cove and went to Sea World.
We got there again around 9:30am, and went on Journey to Atlantis right away, first the men went on it, and my Sis and I stayed behind with the kids, then the men came out and we walked right on the ride with no wait.
After, my B.I.L did Kraken, I did not want to go, still had my fill with the HULK ha!
We took our time walking around and taking beautiful pictures, we saw the penguin encounter, Shark encounter, and made our way to Believe... It's a Shamu show, and it was good... but hey! I get teary at nothing and loved the story of the show.
After the show we went on a kiddy ride and off for lunch. The closest place was Mango Joe's, all 4 of us had the Chicken Wrap with potato salad and the kids had the hot dogs with chips in the souvenir plate.
The wraps were huge, but not very tasty, my sister and I found them bland, but the potato salad was very good.
We were then just in time for Odyssea, it's an indoor show of acrobats and humor... my son (10) enjoyed it very much, he was laughing so hard.
We walked by Blue Horizon and decided to wait for the show... it's a dolphin show with acrobats and birds... it's the best show that I saw that day... very good.
We walked some more, went to see the horses, Dolphin cove and Stingray lagoon, did some shopping and by then we were getting really tired. It was an other really hot day, in the 80s. Our resort pool was calling to us.. ha!

 

[donaldduck1967]

Nasa pictures!!!


I know the men had a great time, they had a wonderful lunch with an astronaut (they were in a group, 24, for the tour, but they were sometimes split up in 2 groups, for different experience)
They visited the grounds, had a similation of landing the shuttle, sat in the turning machine (don't know what it's called ha!) and went for a spin.. had lunch, did some more touring! In all it was all day!

Thanks for the info

 

[weezy26nm]

A fellow Canadian loving your trip report. Your pictures are amazing. And where did you get your daughter's killer whale dress? It is adorable.

 

[marconat]

weezy26nm, Hello there!!! thank you for reading... and my mom made her dress (she made all of the kid's outfits) We bought the material at Wal Mart.

 

[marconat]

day 7 - Jan 7th

When we got to the resort we were hungry...ok, we wanted to eat something different... so we found this Chinese restaurant (which the name escapes me, will try to find it) and decided to order out. I wanted white rice and chicken soo guy, for the kids, because my son is very fussy... Well apparently, chicken soo guy is a Canadian thing... That's what the owner of the restaurant told me, and they did not have anything like that.... OH! what to do... ok, I ask if they have some shrimps... Yes they do but only in a batter with the sauce already on it... They owner was very nice and brought a sample of what he said the kids like, which was the shrimp in a sweet sauce and some pork with an other kind of sauce... Well he was right about it, my son loved the shrimps and pork and we ended up ordering there... The portions were really huge, for the 6 of us, it came out to 50.00$ is all, and we had enough for the next day. I have to get the name because it was really good.

We ate and then it was time to pack up all of our things, because we were changing resort. We were leaving OKW for SSR in the morning.

I was trying to fit everything in my suitcases (they were already full from the time we left home, even had to transfer some clothes from one suitcase to the other one, because it was at 52 pounds) ha! But I got almost all of my things in, the rest, like shoes and books etc. I just put in a bag and put it in the van.

My B.i.l ran around trying to find something to put our food in. We had bought food for breakfast for 2 weeks and we had our delicious chinese left over ha! ha! And of course my precious diet coke, would not part with my diet coke ha! So that went in the van!

In the morning we got all of our luggages transfered to SSR, they came around 8:10 am to pick them up.
And we brought the food to SSR and they put it in a giant fridge for us, until we were ready to pick it up after our day at the park.

 

[marconat]

Day 8 - Jan 8th

Ok, so like I wrote, we got all organized in the morning. The luggages were picked up, and we packed the last little things in the van...
We were out the door, as soon as the door shut behind me, I felt sad... I love this resort and we were really well... but I was anxious to see SSR. We brought our box of food at the front of SSR and we were off to Disney - MGM Studios.
We got to the Studios and everyone had to go to the bathroom. When I came out, my hubby was gone to get some cash, and the rest of the group waited and waited and waited... Finally he came back!
Where did you go to get the money? He had asked around where to get cash and was told, just outside of the gate, so he went out and was not able to come back in! Hi! hi! His card was not working, so he had to go and get an other one done... ha!
Oh! well, we were all together now, let's explore.
We went straigt to Star tours, and on our way, Cars came out, so we fallowed and took some pictures with it... I know it's suppose to be a street party theme, but boy was it badly organized. We had a hard time to get to the Cars (Lightning and Mater), took us a good 15 - 20 min, to sneak a good picture without too many people around. But got a few good ones.
Then we went into Star tours, without my son... and he is a huge fan of Star wars... when we came out, he was asking if we saw a certain type of ship ect.. and he wanted a toy from the store.
We told him that it is nothing and his little sister (7) did it. I told him that I would not let him on it, if I think he could not hack it... and my sister added if you go on it, I'll buy you that toy... well, he went on it and loved it... I know, I know, it's not good to bribe, but I really wanted him to experience it, since he's so into Star wars.
As we came out of the ride, Darth Vader came out for pictures and autographs, so he got to see a character.

coming up, Birthday lunch, more rides, Illumination birthday cruise

 

[JnEsWDWMom]

Loved all the pictures! Thanks for posting! That's from my Emily!

 

[marconat]

Day 8 - Jan 8th continued...

We went for our ADR at Sci-Fi for 11:30. I really love that restaurant, it's so different from the other ones... the atmosphere is fun, and the kids love the car booths and the old movies on that giant screen. We were seated within minutes. I had the All-American burger, so did my husband, my sister had the shrimp penne pasta and the kids had the macaroni with meat sauce, veggies and fruits (I think), they also each had a milkshake. My B.I.L said that it was the best milkshake he had so far. Our meal was very good and the portions are very big. After our meal, our server noticed my daughter's birthday pin and brought her a huge sundae and a card signed by the other servers... It was a nice surprise, and I did not expect it. Of course she shared with her big brother... that's how she is, good hearted and always thinking of others.

Then men wanted to see the Lights, Motors, action show after lunch. But since we already saw it (my sis and I) We decide to go see The magic of Disney Animation witht he kids and do some SHOPPING... I wanted to have a piece of jewelry and found a nice pendant for me and also one for my daughter...
When the men joined us after their show, we sat down and had some popcorn and they could not stop talking about it... My husband liked it sooo much that he took around 100 pictures of the show... Wow that's a lot of cars and buildings to look at ha! ha!

By then it was starting to get very gray outside and we dashed to the Voyage of the little mermaid just in time and it was pouring... I was getting worried because we had booked an Illumination birthday cruise that night... We enjoyed the little mermaid, it one of my favorite show, and when we came out, the sun was shining... Whew!
We walked around some more for a while and decided to go back to our resort to get ready for the cruise.

As we were going to the van, my sis and I noticed the SSR bus and we jumped on it with my daughter. My hubby, B.I.L and son went in the van... We like taking the bus and taught we could beat them to the resort... WRONG. At the first stop we got out, we taught it was the Hospitality house (like at OKW) We were never at SSR and it looked like the front of the resort... boy were we far from it... so we got on an other bus and asked to be dropped at the Hospitality house... she did not know what that was, so I rephrased and said, ok. the front desk, registrations ect. She anwsered, we don't go to front desk, only Springs, it's the closest to there... By then the men were getting worried and my B.I.L decided to look for us around the bus stops. Well we got to Springs and found our way to the front desk without no problems... but no men around, we had to wait in line to see what room we were in and called there and my hubby answered and told us how to get there... by then my B.I.L arrived and off we went to our room... Boy, I'm telling you, they could not just stayed put and let us join them?
The SSR rooms are much smaller than OKW, but we had a nice stay anyway... We had our diner, left overs from the chinese place and we were gone to Bayside Marina for our Illumination cruise.
The pontoon was decorated with balloons and a birthday banner, our captain Jody was really nice... and made sure all was taking care off, we went for a cruise around and she told us all about the buildings and places to go. When it was time for the fireworks, she pulled up in place (under the bridge) and made the people standing on top sing Happy Birthday to my daughter... and just before the fireworks started, she got my daugther to blow out the giant candle (the torch just in front of us, pretend of course, they go off when the show starts) it was really magical.

Our night ended with the fabulous fireworks, we were all tired and went to bed.

 

[tadamom]

Wow!! Great trip report so far!! Your photography is great!!! Keep it coming!!